This study analyses how the real effective exchange rate affected the current account in Argentina between the years 1978 and 2006 divided into three sub-periods. Theory concerning the subject, the so called J-curve that the current account should immediately be reduced after a devaluation, thereafter recovering and in the end becoming larger than it was initially.
This study has been unable find all the three stages of the J-curve, at best only the first two were found. In the first two periods – 1978 to 1990 and 1991 to 2000 – a real depreciation seemed to have an instant negative impact on the current account and then a positive trend could be seen. For the third sub-period of 2001 – 2006, there was even less evidence supporting a J-curve, although the small number of observations may be driving this results.